The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere

Seth

"How the hell should I know?" I answered. "It looked like some kinda fucking demon!"

"It's a damn rhetorical question," Ezekiel snarled, making a face he probably thought looked threatening but just made him look like an asshole. He gasped for more air, slowly recovering. "Do you think it was whatever tore open the hatch at the bottom of the research tower?"

"The what?" I asked, turning my head towards him.

"The fucking hatch with the gaping hole in it!" he shouted. "That the pricks running this place pretended was hardly anything to worry about!"

"Oh." I frowned, looking towards the ground. I didn't have the stamina to be thinking about this right now. "Does it matter? We just need to get the hell out of here. We can interrogate this shit when we're back in civilization." I looked in the opposite direction. "You okay, Theo?"

He was silent for a sec, but then nodded. "Y-Yes, I. I think I'm alright..."

"Great." I tried to get my bearings, looking around. "You were behind us, right? Did you see what happened to the others?"

"No, I don't think so." He looked stupid anxious, and bit his lip. "I-- I think it might have gotten them. It was so close... I couldn't..."

"It's okay, Theo," I told him. "I'm sure they got away too. Everything's gonna be okay."

"Like hell is it gonna be okay," Ezekiel said, being an unhelpful piece of shit. "That thing could be back on top of us in a second. You think a few inches of wood will protect us from something like that?"

"Ezekiel, just-- Just shut up for a minute, alright? Just shut the hell up." I ran my hand over my face, trying to think fast. "Okay. There's a back door just a little up ahead, right? Kam's group is probably still outside waiting for us. Whatever that thing is, odds are against anything alive being able to see as well in the dark, so we'll cut our lamps, loop the building, and then dash towards whatever light we see up ahead. Then we can tell them what happened, and decide if we're gonna look for the others, if they haven't beaten us there already."

"Fine," Ezekiel said.

Naturally, this plan held up for all of five seconds. No sooner did we head towards the back door then we discovered that it'd been blocked off from the other side. No matter what we did, it wouldn't budge.

"C'mon, open up, you piece of shit!" I shouted, kicking on it as I gritted my teeth with frustration. I should've tried shooting it with my pistol at this point, but on the other hand, it's a really good thing I didn't, considering what happened a second later.

"Stop wasting time, Mekhian," Ezekiel chided obnoxiously. "They've obviously sealed it off!" He bit the edge of his thumb. "When could they have done this? We must have been being tricked from the start. Damn, damn--"

"Um," Theo said, his tone alarmed. "Do you two smell that? And hear that...?"

I stopped my stupid attempt to force open the door and sniffed the area. I did, in fact, both hear it and smell it, though I wished I didn't: It was gas, accompanied by a hissing sound from the kitchen nearby.

We wanted to investigate, but the thing was, obviously Theo and Ezekiel couldn't bring their lanterns in there, and neither could we charge in and make the airflow even more dangerous than it already was. So after a minute, the others decided to take a step back while I cracked the door open just a tiny bit.

Sure enough, it hit me like a brick in the face. I couldn't see where it was coming from, but the smell was so thick it was enough to give me a headache just from a whiff, so there had to be a lot pouring in. And up close, the sound was less 'a pipe came a little loose' and more 'someone punched a hole in the whole tank'.

I don't have a clue how it could have happened, or who could have done it. The damage had to be recent, after all, but we were all together, and we'd all but confirmed there wasn't anybody else left in the sanctuary. So what the hell was going on?

Anyway, as soon as I relayed this, the others freaked the hell out and flicked off their lamps. For a second, I started to despair as it felt like we were gonna be crawling around in the dark, but then something good finally happened. Coming from a room off to the left, I could make out a very faint glow from underneath the frame that I hadn't been able to when the hall was still lit up. It didn't look like gaslight, but of course Ezekiel freaked out anyway when I pointed it out, practically slamming his body into the door.

I wasn't expecting what turned out to be behind it. It was a way bigger area than I'd expected, probably taking up the majority of the northern wall of the building - curving with it at the corner, too - and looked like it'd originally been two distinct rooms, with the part in the middle contracting a bit. But that's not the important part; what matters is that, even in the incredibly limited lighting, I could see that it was packed to the brim with all kinds of weird shit.

I'm talking everything you can imagine: Sculptures, furniture in spooky styles I didn't recognize, giant machines that could've been for who-knows-what, tanks full of something. Out of use golems with experimental designs, crates full of what looked like gemstones, at least two full-sized grandfather clocks--

"This, ah, must be the storage room," Theo said, biting his lip. "Neferuaten mentioned it during the tour, but I didn't expect it to be so... So..."

"Fucked up?" I suggested.

He scratched the back of his head. "I was going to say 'expansive', I think."

"Stop wasting time," Ezekiel said. "We need to find the source of the light."

We did. Not too far into the room was a box of some niche household technology; not even anything particularly exciting, just the kind of stuff you'd find lying in the attic of most old houses. I saw a portable oven, some clockwork toys, a bunch of spare logic engine parts... And the source of the light, which turned out to be some little biological lanterns. Exactly what we needed.

I'm an Occam's Razor kinda guy, and I can't see how it would help anyone for us to have them anyway, but it almost felt a little too perfect.

"W-What now?" Ezekiel asked. I hadn't noticed it a minute ago, but past his tough guy front, I could tell he was getting increasingly shaken up. He couldn't even keep his hands still.

I thought about rubbing it in, but it wasn't worth the time. "We'll head for the front door. The others went out that way, so they probably haven't barred it like this one. After that, same plan."

"What if they have blocked it, somehow?" Theo asked.

"Then we'll smash a fucking window," I said flatly. "And if that sets off the golems, well, I guess we'll just have to run real fast."

We left the storage room and headed counter-clockwise around the building, along the square hall that spanned the breadth of everything that wasn't connected to the old chapel. Soon enough, we were coming up on the area where we'd saved Mehit from earlier, the exit just out of view.

But then, the shadows cleared.

Something was waiting for us.

Ptolema

"Lady Anna?" I called out. (I mean, looking back, it was obvious it was her, but I still wasn't really used to her suddenly looking normal. I did get tutored by her when I was a kid, so I guess my mental image is probably a little stiffer than everyone else's.)

She didn't reply, but just kept running, starting to stumble. I didn't get it at the time, but I guess she wasn't running to us so much as away from the monster. Sure enough, I could see something moving out in the darkness, and heard a cracking sound like stone breaking. She looked genuinely pretty freaked out, and looked like she was struggling, tripping over her own feet and halfway falling to the floor.

I thought we were just gonna run, but instead Fang did something kinda cool, and dashed over to Anna to help her back up. Then the three of us made a break for it.

"Let's get to the stairs!" Fang shouted. "I bet that set's too narrow and flimsy for something like that to follow us!"

"What about the others?!" I asked, trying to keep pace.

"There's still two other ways up, and even more out!" she replied. "They'll figure it out!"

I hoped they were right.

Soon we came to the room with the giant glass windows and the skinny, spiral metal staircase in the middle. Fang turned their head sharply towards those windows, making an 'ooo' face, like they'd just had the idea of taking a chance on breaking them... Until we noticed that there was a golem group patrolling the area just nearby, the main one turning its head sharply to analyze us.

Well, maybe it'd at least slow the monster down if we were still being chased.

We sprinted up the stairs, our sandals (well, me and Anna's sandals - I think Fang was wearing military boots, or something) making a racket as they clanked against the metal, making the whole structure shake around. Thankfully, it seemed like we weren't being chased, because I didn't hear any more sounds, even when we made it to the top and paused for a second to catch our breath.

"Pheeeeww," Fang said, boggling their eyes. "Wow! Wow. Seriously thought I was gonna die there."

"Y-Yeah," I said, looking down over the railing to make totally sure we weren't being followed.

"Like, man! Every time I think I've got this all wrapped up, the night throws another curveball." They clicked their tongue. "An actual monster. Wow. Kinda spoils it, in a way."

I furrowed my brow. "Was it an actual monster?"

Fang gave me kinda a funny look, twisting their lip to the side. I didn't know what to make of that, which was kinda annoying. Why can't people just say what they mean!

"Anna," Fang said, turning to look at her. "Do you have any idea what that thing was?"

"Now is not the time for such questions," she told her. "We are not safe here. We need to get to one of the other exits and escape."

Despite Anna saying this in a total I'm-giving-you-an-order sort of tone, Fang seemed to take it more as a suggestion, and thought about it for a second, tilting their head to the side.

"Child." Anna stated, sounding pretty silly with her current voice. "We must go."

"Mm, I dunno," Fang said. "Call it a hunch, but I have a feeling the other exits are gonna be blocked too." They nodded a few times. "Yeah, eighty percent sure? I mean, this wouldn't really work without that element."

"You can't just start pullin' numbers outta nowhere," I told them. "You're just speculating."

They shrugged.

"What do you think we oughta do to get out of here, then?" I asked, glancing nervously down the stairs.

Fang thought about this for a little bit. "Hmm-hmmm. Not a lot coming to mind right now, gotta admit..."

"Stop wasting our time if you have no better suggestions," Anna said, sounding real peeved. She started stomping down the hall, probably heading for the other staircase.

"Hey now, hold on a sec," Fang said, holding up a hand. "I might not have an idea-idea, but I've got kinda an interim-idea. How about we head back to that storage room up on the top floor and grab some of the grenades? Then we'd have a better shot at fighting that thing, and maybe we could even blow up the barricade."

This idea seemed dumb to me. "Can't we already do that with our rifles, though?" I asked, confused. "I mean, if we wanted to just tear a hole in the wall. Didn't Zeno say something like that, earlier?"

Fang made a weird noise through their teeth. "I mean, the refractor guns are heat weapons, y'know? If we busted out that way, it'd leave a whole bunch of molten slag everywhere that'd be hard to bypass without the Power." They fiddled one of their hair spikes. "Pluuuuus, we'd have a tough time dealing with the golems if they responded with just guns--"

"There's no point in sitting here debating this," Anna said meanly. "It's just a floor above - it would be faster to simply go."

So we went, heading further up the metal steps. But then, outside of the window, there was suddenly an incredibly bright light-- Like, lamprise bright, you know? It was enough to make the pond out the window shimmer like a mirror.

"Woah, what the hell is that?" I blurted out.

"Beats the hell out of me," Fang said. "Looks like it's coming a little off to the right? I can't make out the source."

"That's near our meeting spot, right?" I asked, frowning with concern. "Could something have happened to the others...?"

"Maybe. Shit," Fang said, and whistled. "This is starting to look more and more like a setup."

Just then, I heard a scream. It wasn't hard to tell who it was.

"Seth!" I called out.

Seth

Okay, so, in retrospect, I must have been being stupid, because it obviously wasn't the same thing we'd seen before. If anything, it looked like whatever had rushed us the last time we were in the area. More person-sized, with only a vague outline of wings and a beak.

But it was dark as hell at first, and what's more, it came out of nowhere-- One minute the hall looked empty all the way to the back, and the next it was just there, standing dead in our path in the entrance hall not more than a few meters ahead. And the instant it appeared, there was this spooky white light that suddenly poured in through the windows, like some kind of ghostly aura.

This is preamble to say that we freaked the hell out the second we saw it, and freaked out even harder when it started running at us. I don't even remember what we said, but Ezekiel leapt back like a cat that'd just got a naked flame thrust in its face. Theo-- I don't remember what Theo did.

As for me, I won't try to deny it - I screamed like all hell this time. I forgot the gas altogether and took a shot at the thing by instinct, but like before, it passed through it like it was made of water. Then like my legs started moving without even thinking; I guess I'm kinda a coward by nature in a way I never realized before.

We got separated, though I'm not sure how, though I think one of the others dropped their lamp, since I remember a light bouncing off the floor. I assume they must've run back the way we came, but I could see that thing in the corner of my eye and ended up breaking towards the main hall, running down the corridor leading towards it and throwing open the doors. By the time I realized I was alone, I was already half way into the chamber, standing by the orrery again. I’d made one big loop around the building.

At this point, I didn’t have a fucking clue what to do next. I don’t even know what I would have done if I’d been left to my own devices. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, because a second later, the door on the opposite side of the hall was thrust open. My nerves were still going nuts, so I jolted my gun up and almost shot right at it, but stopped myself at the last minute.

Thank god for that, considering who turned out to be behind it.

"Woah!" she said, flinching backwards. "It's me!"

I lowered my rifle, my eyes going wide. "Ema?"

"Who does it look like, you doofus?" She glared at me, her face illuminated by the light from her lamp.

I was relieved she was alive, obviously, but something else came to mind quickly. Her lamp, I realized.

"Ema," I said hurriedly. "Turn off your light."

"What?" She frowned. "Why?"

"There's gas!" I called out, stepping towards her. "Can't you smell it?"

She sniffed the air. "Uh, not really. But my nose isn't super sensitive--"

"Just turn it off!"

"Fine!" she twisted the knob, and the flame went out. I breathed a sigh of relief, and then remembered the fact that I was being chased by a literal monster.

"Ema," I said, rushing past the orrery towards her. "We gotta get out here. That thing was blocking the way out-- It was coming after me."

"It was blockin' the way out...?" She frowned. "Fang said something like that would happen."

"You were with Fang?" I asked.

She nodded. "And Anna-- Uh, her ladyship. But I heard you scream, so..."

"So you ditched them and went looking for me?" I smiled bittersweetly. "That's really stupid. And kinda sweet."

"Don't be weird. Or call me stupid." She crossed her arms. "I just don't want anybody to get eaten by that thing."

"Where were the three of you going?" I asked. "And what was that about knowing the door would be blocked?"

"Up the big metal staircase back that way." She pointed to the door she'd arrived from. "We tried the door out around there, but it was sealed off by somethin' from the outside. Fang said it would be dumb to try and blow it open with our rifles since the stone would melt and make a big mess, and it'd attract the golems... So they thought we should go up to the armory, or whatever it is, and get some grenades. Blast right through, I guess."

"Seems like kinda a dumb plan for Fang," I said, a little skeptical. Not like there's a lot on the table. I looked towards the stairs at the corners of the library. "And the gas is gonna take a massive shit on it. We need to tell them. Think we can catch up?"

"Dunno," Ptolema said, already moving towards them. "Guess we can try. What about the others, though? Who was with you?"

"Theo and Zeke," I told her. "Dunno where they went. Though, I think I saw Theo running back the way we came."

"Where was--"

"The stockroom, near the kitchen," I explained. "At the back of the building."

Theodoros

I... I don't feel confident in saying what that thing was. When it was underground, it had to at the very least have been a, er-- An incredibly convincing illusion. Impossibly convincing, though I struggle to believe even that much. It felt so real...

But what we saw in the hallway could have just as easily been someone in a costume. If it hadn't been for the gas, we probably would have just shot at it, and that would have been that... But I suppose everyone panicked. I mean, there was that light coming in through the window. It made it seem as though it had just appeared, teleported, from nowhere.

Seth ran off almost right away, and, well... Obviously I think of him as a bit more of a reliable person than Ezekiel... So I tried to follow him. But he's a lot faster than me, and it was dark, and I must've become confused. I could hear that thing right behind me, chasing after me with a strange gait, like some kind of animal, though I didn't dare turn to look.

I ended up going back the way we came, running in the direction of the kitchen. But it sounded like it was still after me. I took a turn, and ended up in what must've been the quarters for the sanctuary stewards - a hall with six or seven nice but plain-looking bedrooms, about two meters across each, with a supply closet that looked to be full of cleaning equipment at the back.

I've always thought of myself as quite bad at thinking on my toes, but somehow, I managed to come up with a reasonably clever idea. Since it sounded as though I'd gained some ground on the thing, I quickly shut the doors that were still open, locked a couple of them at random with my copy of key from dad, and jumped into another, locking the door behind me. My thought was that maybe it'd get so confused it wouldn't know where to go, or at least get confused long enough for me to scramble out of the window or something.

Though, now that I'm thinking about it, I've only run into a couple of windows that even open in this whole place. I suppose there wouldn't be much point, since there's no fresh air even 'outside'.

...well, never mind that. The room I ended up in looked like it was out of use. What little furniture that was present seemed methodically cleaned, and the bed was all made up.

I, uh, hid under the bed. After a few moments, I heard those strange footsteps approaching, and felt the frame of one of the doors rattle. My whole body tensed up. I was terrified beyond reason, not daring to let out so much as a single breath.

Thankfully, the gambit must have worked, because after but a few moments, the creature - or, well, person, if it wasn't actually a monster - appeared to depart, the footsteps slowing and growing more distant. Still, it wasn't until a couple of minutes had passed that I allowed myself to breathe a tentative sigh of relief.

Even after that, though, I still had no idea what to do, and was afraid to leave the room. Now that I was alone, it felt incredibly dangerous to do anything. My stomach was tied in knots. I knew if I just stayed put, I was a goner, but the alternative felt even more frightening.

I only left after about ten or so minutes, when the gas became so unbearable it was getting hard to breathe. I unlocked the door, cursing at the feebleness of the organic light I now had compared to the lamp I had earlier... I'm sure it sounds a little childish to be scared of the dark, but it barely reached more than a couple meters. It felt as though something was going to leap out at me at any moment.

I ran from the kitchen, heading towards the main hall. I didn't even know where I was going, really - I had a vague idea of wanting to get a view from the second floor to see if dad and others were still outside, but that might've just been a post-hoc justification as I tried to get as far away from the kitchen I could without potentially running into that thing again. I had no plan. I was praying I would run into someone who would save me, even if it was just as likely the opposite would happen.

I, er, ran up the stairs in the library, and opened the door to the hallway... And that was when I saw it.

In the distance, in the darkness, there was a shape. Not the one that we'd seen back in the doorway, the one with roughly human proportions. No, this one was the monster,the same creature that had attacked us down in the basement. Massive, multi-limbed, almost insectile in its motions.

It was heading-- Crawling around the corner away from me, but still, I leapt back in shock, almost falling to the ground.

I was about to flee back in the door, when--

"Theo?!" I heard from behind me. "Is that you?"

Ezekiel

It seems I'm the only man left here who isn't a coward. When that thing appeared in front of the doorway, I stood my damn ground at first. I wasn't afraid; it looked like a cheap costume. Some prick in cloak, a mask, and a pair of stilts, more likely than not. I almost decided to take the shot in spite of the gas - thought it might be worth the gamble.

Unfortunately, there must have been more going on than I thought, because something hit the side of my leg in the darkness a few moments after the other two ran for their lives. It felt like it must've been the Power, but that couldn't be, considering the suppression. Despite what we all saw underground, I'm not going to entertain any ridiculous supernatural conjecture; I'm a rationalist. It was probably some trap, or maybe there was a second party at work. It's unimportant.

Despite my best efforts, I fell to the ground and dropped the dinky light I got from the storeroom, which rolled all the way past the figure to the other side of the hall. As if this wasn't bad enough luck, the blaring white light from beyond the windows chose this exact instant to suddenly go out. At that point, I was forced to reconsider my chances. I'd been thrown off balance, and it was harder to see the target-- So there was nothing to be done.

I decided to follow after them. At this point, I could only see one light fading into the distance, but I was limping a little bit from the fall on top of being afraid to make my location too obvious by calling out, and...

Well, that's not important. All that matters is that I lost them by the time I'd made it back to the kitchen, and found myself stumbling about in darkness like a fool. Not much camaraderie in this group, to say the least. Mercifully, I was at least close to the stockroom and nothing seemed to have followed me, so over the course of several minutes, I was able to fumble around in the darkness back to the crate full of the little lamps and retrieve another. I suppose I ought to have taken a spare like the Mekhian advised, but my coat is somewhat lacking in pockets, and I like to keep a free hand.

With that matter settled, I decided I would return to the front door alone and make another bid for escape. My patience was spent. If anything happened, I was considering simply firing my pistol and blowing both me and my foe to pieces.

As I passed by the hall, however, I heard voices on my right, from the stairwell. I recognized the speaker as Kamrusepa - who of course is always speaking as a general rule - and though I only caught fragments of the conversation, it sounded as though she was discussing ambushing and killing someone on the belltower.

I couldn't make out the other voices - no one else was as loud - but this obviously incited concern within me. It was suspicious, after all, that she'd even be here, having been a part of the group posted outside. She should have already been at the exit.

So what did I do? I decided to shadow them, of course.

What?

That's the logical thing to do, isn't it? Don't give me that look.